


Trial and Error

by orphan_account



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Smut, Outdoor Sex, Pre-Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 10:53:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15532668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: 'Now, he never did quite know what to say when he felt most strongly about her-- he fumbled at being romantic in all the conventional ways. But what he could show her, what he could express with his body, his little facial expressions that she had learned to read over their years together, meant more to her than any flowery words or love poems ever could. A declaration of love could be empty, but a touch could never lie.'Terra and Aqua sneak out of training to steal some time alone, together in the woods. Blanket in hand, they have an hour before they need to be back in the training rooms. That's more than enough time to have some fun. And hopefully, not get caught in the process.





	Trial and Error

By both of their best estimates, they had about an hour to finish doing this and get back to the training rooms, doing their best to look as if they'd been doing nothing but practising and sparring the whole time, just in time for Master Eraqus to return. Ven was a bit more of a problem: he wasn't scheduled for training today-- his practice regimens were still shorter and less strenuous than theirs-- but he'd still come down to train voluntarily from time to time, wanting to be just like them, even though his skill level wasn't up to theirs.

So there was the chance that Ven might come into the training room and see they were gone-- but, hopefully, he'd just assume they had gone outside to practice, and go ahead with his own exercises. He'd been told that he really shouldn't interrupt the practice of two Masters-in-training when he himself wasn't even a candidate for Master yet. And he was usually good about obeying that. Usually.

"You do have to admit," Aqua noted as they were climbing down the path behind the training hill that led down into the scattered forest surrounding the hall, "this is probably not setting the best example for him, walking off in the middle of practice." But her voice was light, as close as she ever came to giggling, an embarrassed nervousness. Terra was feeling something similar right now (among the other, more physical things he was feeling), but tended to deal with it by going quiet and becoming even worse with words than he normally was.

Fortunately, even if he fumbled at expressing himself in words, there were plenty of other ways he could express his feelings for her. Which she was acutely aware of, and looking forward to, right now.

Well, "looking forward to" maybe wasn't the best term, at this point. "Frustrated, horny, and hopelessly distracted" was closer to it. There was training, there was Ven-- both of them adored him, and they had given up other potential chances to sneak away, to keep company with him: sparring, chatting, taking him down to the closest village for food and shopping and entertainment. It was easy to sublimate their frustration into care for him... up to a point. As long as they were careful not to accidentally brush hands, or look closely at each other for too long. Certain parts of each other, in particular.

The forest was dense enough that they didn't feel too exposed, but not so heavy and dark that it felt ominous, either. There were flecks of afternoon sunlight all over the ground, leaves above them that seemed to glow bright green with the light they were shielding the bodies beneath from. Terra had a folded blanket slung over one shoulder-- an old blanket they'd found in a storeroom with a stack of others, with a few holes in it but still thick and soft enough to be a good padding between bare skin and the forest floor. As romantic as sex in the woods might sound, they had found out through clumsy trial and error that dirt, twigs, and dried leaves grinding into your knees, buttocks, or back weren't exactly erotic. (To say nothing of that one time with the ants. Terra had been hard pressed to explain how exactly the ants had managed to get inside of his clothes and bite him when all they had supposedly been doing was having a picnic in the woods.)

"I think this is good enough," Aqua said, glancing around the surrounding area, her voice still tense and tight. Terra spread the blanket out across the ground, checking to make sure there were no roots or rocks sticking out of the earth (or anthills) and kicking away the detritus of fallen twigs and leaves with a few sweeps of his foot.

Aqua slipped off her shoes and took a step onto the soft cloth, staring up at the canopy of leaves, but Terra glanced over the unfolded blanket, momentarily concerned.

"Did we wash the... fuck blanket after last time?"

Aqua sounded for a minute like she was choking, trying to hold back an unwanted snort of laughter. She punched him lightly on the arm, causing him to drop to the ground with a feigned noise of pain.

"That is not the name for it! Don't call it that!"

"But that is what we use it for, isn't it? Even when it's clean, I wouldn't feel right doing anything else with it now."

"Don't use words like that!" She was still holding in a laugh and had that "oh Terra" frustrated-but-affectionate look on her face. "It's a bad influence on Ven. What if you slipped up and said it in front of him one day? We'd have to explain what it meant."

Terra shrugged. "Kids his age usually find out about things like that anyway. No matter how hard adults try to hide it from them."

Aqua looked like she was on the verge of saying something else about Ven, but bit it back-- he wasn't the one she wanted to be thinking about right now. "I'm sure Master Eraqus knows what it means, anyway. And he wouldn't be thrilled by hearing you say it."

Terra had removed his own shoes while they were talking, and was now leaning back on the blanket, watching the patterns of shadow that fell through the leaves. "I was just worried about whether we'd washed it. Because no matter what we called it, someone might notice the, um, smell."

"Who, Ven? He probably wouldn't know what that means either."

"Hey, don't be so sure. Boys his age start to have dreams--"

Aqua flopped down on the blanket next to him, laughing. "If Ven is having that kind of dream, you get to be the one to talk to him about it. Not me. Man-to-man talks." She poked Terra's nose lightly; he grabbed her hand gently and kissed it.

Now, he never did quite know what to say when he felt most strongly about her-- he fumbled at being romantic in all the conventional ways. But what he could show her, what he could express with his body, his little facial expressions that she had learned to read over their years together, meant more to her than any flowery words or love poems ever could. A declaration of love could be empty, but a touch could never lie.

"Maybe. I told you that the first time I remembered having a dream like that, it was about you, didn't I?" His tone of voice was quieter now, more subdued.

"...Yeah." Aqua sat up slowly, finding words slipping away from her as well. She couldn't remember when her attraction to him had started-- only that it felt like something beyond her control, something like the pull of gravity. She thought about the meaning of his name, and the inevitability of the fact that water moved in cycles between land and sky, but always came down to touch the earth sooner or later.

She felt the heat of his body as he sat up behind her, and leaned back into the touch as he kneaded her shoulders gently with his large hands. "Wow, you're really tense..." Aqua nodded, letting him work the kinks out of her neck and shoulders slowly. It was probably obvious even just from her body language, stemming from a combination of too much practice, taking too much responsibility on herself, and too much unsatisfied tension between them.

Whether or not Terra could tell (sometimes he could and sometimes he couldn't; he surprised her sometimes with his intuition), the unsatisfied tension part was starting to assert itself again. It was just a back rub, meant for now to ease the knots out of her muscles, even if it was meant as a prelude to something more. But just the touch of his hands, careful and sensuous, was sending electric sensations down her spine, heat pooling between her legs. She needed it to become something more, very soon. "Terra..."

"Hmm?" He paused, his fingertips hot against her back. Aqua turned around and pushed his hands away gently, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

"You're a tease, did you know that?"

"Was I teasing you?" He blinked at her guilelessly. Aqua wasn't sure if he was really unaware of the effect he was having on her, or just playing innocent. Sometimes it really was hard to tell, with him. "I just thought you would appreciate having me un-tense you a little bit first. You're so wound up..."

But Terra didn't object, at all, when she moved into his lap and kissed him on the lips gently. Whatever he fumbled at expressing in words, he could still express very well in other ways with his mouth. The feel of his mouth on hers, the way his lips, so often set in a stern line, softened and parted for her, the way he tasted, the way his strong arms wrapped around her-- she'd done this enough with him that all of it was familiar to her, but not enough that any of it felt dull or routine. Quite the opposite-- the fact that she knew what to expect from him made it more exciting, leading her down past what felt like a point of no return.

Terra was the first one to break the kiss, pulling back, breathing more quickly now. "How much time?" he whispered, breath hot against her cheek.

Aqua fumbled with the sash around her waist, pulling out a small gold pocket watch. "Forty-five minutes left..."

"Good. We don't have to rush it..." Then he was kissing her neck, her shoulders, and Aqua closed her eyes for a few moments, enjoying the feel of his lips on her bare skin. Still, there was something in her that needed, craved something more intense-- it was fun to kiss and caress and find unexpectedly sensitive areas of each other's bodies, but only when they hadn't been denying themselves week after week, month after month.

"We could go a little faster than this, though." Her voice teased gently, but she meant it in earnest. Terra drew back again, waiting for her to set the pace of things-- she didn't know if he wanted this as badly as she did, but he was often willing to let her be the one to decide how fast things would go.

With a surreptitious glance behind her shoulder, mildly worried about the possibility of unseen watchers, she untied the sash around her waist deftly and then reached for the bottom of her shirt, rolling it off slowly and leaving her breasts freely exposed. She didn't normally wear a bra-- the straps on her shirt, and a bit of padding and some underwire beneath the strong fabric, provided enough support by themselves, but Terra often joked that it made things easier for him.

"Mmm..." His hands, callused and slightly rough in places as an inevitable side effect of training, slid underneath her breasts, cupping and squeezing gently. As focused and resolute as he was during practice, there were still times when he had a typical young man's reaction to a pair of breasts pressing against him.

"I know, I know..." Aqua laughed as his hands rolled over her breasts, still feeling a sigh in her throat when he took a nipple between thumb and forefinger and teased it lightly. "You haven't gotten to see them for a whole two months, I know. I'm sorry." She ran her fingers over his head, ruffling his hair. A faint blush tinted his cheeks, but it didn't stop him from leaning down and lapping his tongue across her nipple, before drawing it into his mouth to suck on it.

She let her fingers nuzzle into Terra's hair as he moved back and forth between her breasts, kissing and sucking, and made little sighing noises in her throat to let him know she liked it. She'd been planning on making this as fast as possible-- the precious time was slipping away, and she wanted to just push him back onto the blanket and show him just how much she needed him-- but there was something delicious in the way he practically worshipped her body. From any other man, Aqua would have found it annoying, but there was something strangely exciting about his guileless ways. It was her body that kept him so mesmerized, and she knew it-- no other woman would have affected him in the same way.

Curious about just how ready he was, and growing impatient, Aqua let her hand slide down his back, reaching around to stroke his leg. And then-- watching him carefully for a reaction-- trailed her fingers along the waistband of his pants, moving down and over his crotch, cupping it against her palm.

"H-hey!" He pulled back, laughing, but not making any attempt to push her hand away. "Who's teasing now?"

"I wasn't teasing! I was checking." Her laugh almost turned into embarrassment, but as she kept her hand cradled against him, exploring with her fingers-- finding his thick shaft already mostly stiff under the fabric, hardening further as she stroked it through his pants-- the embarrassment quickly dissolved, burned away into arousal again.

"Checking for what?" He was trying to sound coherent, but obviously rapidly losing it-- his hips bucked against her hand, and she felt the hard flesh give a throb of excitement.

"Just to see how much you want this." She drew her hand back, remembering a time when she'd been stroking him fully clothed like that, and he had lost it, coming in his pants before she'd even gotten a chance to take any of her own clothes off. He had more control now than he did then, she knew-- after the embarrassing incident, he had surreptitiously sneaked off to the Master's library and smuggled out an arcane volume containing lessons and exercises on a subject that had nothing whatsoever to do with combat.

Its absence was not missed, probably only because the Master had the presence (or absence) of mind to not check to see whether that book, in particular, was gone. And it had certainly... enhanced things between her and Terra, once they got a good chance to study it, but they still had their mishaps from time to time, things that could only be learned through practice, trial and error and not abstract lessons. And testing his endurance after two months of deprivation, Aqua knew, was probably not the best timing.

She rested her hands behind her head and leaned backwards, giving him a full view of her, unclad from the waist up. "Now you get your shirt off too. Otherwise, it's not fair." She poked him playfully on the nose again.

With a sly grin, he reached for the bottom of his shirt, and rolled it up slowly, up his chest, over his head, leaning back a little so she had a better view. Keyblades weren't conventional swords, and their power wasn't directly connected to the raw strength of their wielder-- but Terra looked every bit the part of a powerfully built swordsman, and Aqua hadn't been able to keep from noticing his developing muscles over the past few years, even when she was still thinking of him as a friend.

As he balled up the discarded shirt and tossed it onto the blanket, she let her gaze linger on the hard, contoured muscles of his chest, rippling down his abdomen. Even though she'd poked fun at him for being mesmerized by her breasts, she couldn't help but admit that she had spent the past few months desperate to have a good look at that, too-- and forcing herself to not look too closely at the muscular outlines beneath his shirt, or remember what they felt like when they were pressed up against her bare skin, hard and hot.

"Now it's fair," he declared, grinning at Aqua as she stroked her hands over his pectorals, flicking her fingers across his nipples. (He wouldn't admit in words to liking that, but his body language gave it away.)

She trailed them down his chest lightly, finding the trace of hair that led down from his navel and into his pants, and tugged at the waistband of them teasingly, noting the now very obvious bulge in them. "Aren't these getting just a little tight?" she asked with a playful look, slipping her fingertips beneath the waistband.

"Well, I can't take them off unless you get off me." Terra leaned back again, putting his weight into his hands, staring down at her lap. "Right now, that might be kind of tricky."

Somehow, she'd managed to end up in a position where the only way for her to avoid falling off his lap was to straddle his leg. (Okay, she admitted to herself, maybe she'd made a lot of deliberate little movements trying to "accidentally" get herself into this position.) And Terra was, unexpectedly... noticing. And had a little grin on his face as he pressed his thigh into her and rocked his leg back and forth gently, feeling her move with and against him.

"Hey!" She certainly didn’t dislike it, but this wasn't what she had planned on doing. "This isn't fair either!" Despite her protestations, she found her hips starting to buck as she rubbed herself back and forth along his leg; her shorts and panties suddenly felt maddeningly thick and confining.

"If you don't like it, then get off my leg!" Terra leaned back, laughing, hand moving to the tie of his pants. "I can give you something else to sit on." For all his bravado and strength, he could be strangely coy and teasing during sex when he wanted to be. He certainly had his moments of aggressive lust, but as soon as he noticed that something about the coyness drove her wild, he hadn't hesitated to use it for all it was worth.

She rocked herself against the hard muscle of his leg a few more times, flushed with excitement, before finally backing off. The promise of finally taking things all the way was enough to persuade her; she'd brought herself to orgasm in the past by rubbing against him, but after so long without being able to do anything at all with him, she wanted to feel him inside her. She slid off his lap and chuckled again as he fell backwards onto the blanket, unbalanced by the sudden absence of her weight on him.

Aqua got to her feet unsteadily, realizing that her panties were completely soaked through by now. She rolled her shorts down her legs carefully, thinking as she did that it would be a good idea to grab a clean pair as soon as possible when they got back to the training compound. (The thought of walking around in front of Ven with soaked panties was utterly embarrassing, even if he was as clueless as he gave the impression of being.)

A warm afternoon breeze brushed against her bare skin, like a gentle caress-- as if the elements themselves were teasing her. Somehow, Aqua felt less self-conscious undressing in front of Terra out here than in a bedroom, despite the ever-present threat of being seen; it felt more natural among the trees. On the blanket, Terra was now settling down on his back, his bare, flushed skin dappled with sunlight. ‘What are you waiting for?’ the look in his eyes asked-- that teasing little look that drove her half-mad.

She knelt down beside him, stroking his hair and running her fingers down his chest again before swinging her leg over his waist, lowering herself down to straddle his hips. They'd often spend some time fumbling and rolling around before deciding what position to end up in, but some sort of instinct seemed to be urging them in a specific direction here. She needed this, needed it too much, and he liked giving himself up to her aggression when she was in a mood like this, spreading himself out for her taking.

There were times when they played around with the roles of aggressor and ravished-- at least once, she'd used magic to bind him underneath her on the bed. (And Terra was, in the end, not so much embarrassed over falling victim to the spell-- she would have removed it at any time if he really hadn't liked it-- as over how much he enjoyed it.) But Aqua thought of the watch lying somewhere in her pile of clothing and the minutes slipping past, and-- no, she wanted it, he wanted it, they had to make it fast.

Reaching down between his thighs, she stroked her fingers over his shaft and balls. The first time she actually saw him naked, she'd been intimidated. He was tall, large-boned, and, well... proportionally large in every way. It had taken her a while to get used to taking him inside her, but with time and practice, she'd begun to like the feeling of fullness. Or had been getting used to it, at least, before circumstances conspired to make it harder and harder for them to get together.

His fingers worked their way in between her legs, flicking over her erect nub, tugging at it gently, sliding fingers down and up and inside her, but she didn't need much in the way of encouragement. Oh, she liked romance just fine—‘you're such a girl sometimes’, Terra said, not that he disliked giving it in his own fumbling ways-- but this was decidedly not the time for slow romance. Any thoughts of slowing down were seared away in the unbearable heat burning between her legs, taking the rest of her logical thought with it.

"I want you. Please... let me, please... I need to have you." She didn't feel any more verbose than he did right now.

Propping herself up, she wrapped her hand around the base of his shaft, guiding it inside her as she lowered herself down on it. Not sure how well her body would re-adjust after a few months of not having him inside her at all, she tried to take it slowly-- her body seemed to baulk for just an instant before recognizing the distinct feel of him, together with his scent and the short, needy breaths he was making. She steadied herself again; it was easier after the first few inches of him were inside her. And then she went further, lowered herself down all the way, and she was full, ecstatically full, and he was looking up at her with desire-clouded eyes, strong and vulnerable at the same time.

She heard Terra's short, intense moan of pleasure as her muscles contracted around him, and with the sight of him spread out beneath her, eyes dazed with lust, all reason in her head was gone. Her body was moving with its own will, finding the rhythm it wanted; his hands moved instinctively to steady her hips as she rocked back and forth, cupping her buttocks as she rode him.

Gods, it still felt good even after they'd fallen out of practice; her body was still ready to take his full size, even to enjoy it; and he was spread out so beautifully beneath her and all hers for the taking, and so nice to look at. And she was caught up with desire at the look on his face, losing herself in it-- and then before she knew it, she had somehow lost her balance, falling forward towards his chest.

Terra moved quickly to support her, even as she caught herself, steadied herself on her hands. "You okay?" he whispered, between gasps.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine. Got a little excited..." Then a giddy laugh got stuck in her throat and Aqua couldn't say anything else, but she didn't need words to express her feelings either, only her body. As much as she liked the feeling of riding him hard into the ground, having a full view of him writhing and moaning with pleasure beneath her, she liked having her arms wrapped around him too and her face close to his where she could hear every little noise he made.

So she rested herself across Terra's chest for a little longer as she moved against him, skin against skin, running her hands over his hard shoulders and kissing the sweat-damp skin over and over and flicking his nipples gently (saving the memory of the sudden gaspy moans he made when she did that, in case it would come in handy to tease him with later). But sooner or later her body was insisting that it wasn't enough, that she wanted more control; and so she raised her head, hair tangled around her face, trying to get herself back into a sitting position. (And there was a bit of clumsy fumbling, at that point, with trying to find the best way to do it, but they'd had more awkward fumbling moments than this, so it wasn't enough to damp down her desire.)

She settled back down, sitting astride him again, and he was making that little knowing grin again-- and she was suddenly turned on and exhilarated and embarrassed all at once, and wanted to do something like that to turn him on too, but didn't know what would work best. All she could think of was what had worked a few minutes earlier: rocking her hips, she cupped her breasts lightly and squeezed them together, then let go, adjusting her position a little so they bounced up and down with the motions of her body.

"Oh." His voice was barely coherent, coming out between sharp intakes of breath. "That. You-- oh... you need to..." Panting, he struggled for words. "Do that... more often. A lot... more often."

And then his hands were around her thighs, and her own fingers were moving between her legs, rubbing her stiff nub as she kept riding him, and she was close, so close. Barely, she could see his face starting to contort in the way it always did before he came, and she couldn't tell if he was there yet-- could only focus on the sensations inside her body-- but couldn't stop what she was doing. All the sweet spots inside her that his shaft was rubbing felt like they were glowing with pleasure and her fingers worked faster, massaging herself in the rhythm she'd perfected on lonely frustrated nights, the one she knew would always bring her to climax.

Just for a moment, she thought of slowing down, but then her last bits of self-control were gone like dust in the wind and her fingers rubbed down in circles, and she was coming, every nerve shuddering, the different pleasures joining and weaving together into bliss as her inner muscles rippled around him.

But the bliss was more fleeting than usual, however intense-- the impatience of a body desperate for release-- and she found herself suddenly leaning over Terra, gasping for breath. She had to catch herself this time, because he was climaxing now, bucking his hips upwards and throwing his head back, groaning as he released into her.

He stretched out and fell still beneath her, gasping for breath, face still held in that funny look of intense focus he made every time he had an orgasm. For a few moments, all she could hear were the sounds of his breathing and hers.

"So, er..." She couldn't help but worry a little about this, every time they were together. "I didn't... do anything wrong, did I?"

"Uh..." His heavy breathing slowed down, as he grasped around for words. "No, nothing! It was great. Just... too short." He blinked, and she could see the lust in his eyes was gone, replaced by a sudden awkwardness. "Did I do anything wrong? I didn't... hurt you, right?"

"Nope, you didn't." Aqua smiled at him, blushing for some reason she couldn't understand. Re-adjusting herself on his hips, she found herself realizing that she might actually be a little sore tomorrow, but she could deal with that-- she'd trained through far worse discomfort, to the point where the rest of them had to ask her to stop for her own good.

"You've... just been training too hard, if you ask me." He directed the statement at her with a wry look in his eyes, and she felt her cheeks colour slightly. Had he been thinking the same thing as her? "Those muscles inside you, they're getting too strong! I didn't want to come yet, but you milked it right out of me!"

"Hey!" She put her hand on her hip, still blushing, but she was also laughing and couldn't stop. "Don't blame me because you couldn't hold it in!"

"Couldn't hold it in? You came before I did! I think I've done all the work I need on my self-control for now!" He stretched out on the blanket and propped his hands behind his head with a satisfied grin. "Maybe you should spend fewer nights studying and more nights reading that book."

"But you looked like you liked it." She couldn't help drawing out the teasing.

"Or maybe you read too much. I couldn't help it. You were using some kind of magic on me, I swear you were!"

"It's called 'the magic of not having seen me naked for several months!'"

Terra looked like he was about to respond with something clever, but he either forgot it in the face of said magic or he couldn't say it, because he burst out laughing, his face still flushed. There was a touch of self-consciousness in his expression, but it didn't seem to be bothering him. He reached out, stroked her thigh gently even as he kept laughing, and Aqua bent over his chest, giggling too.

"So... wait," she said when Terra finally stopped laughing and rested his head against the blanket, watching the tree branches above their heads. "Why are we still lying here?"

"Me?" He gave another one of those looks where she couldn't tell if he was teasing or clueless. "Well, I can't get up because you're sitting on top of me. And I got distracted because I liked the... view." He indicated her bare chest with a gesture.

Okay, he did have a point about the first part. Admittedly, she'd been staying in place partly because she liked the view from her perspective, too, but... that watch underneath her pile of clothes was still ticking away. She felt a little jolt of adrenaline at the realization that she didn't know exactly how much time had gone past, and climbed off him.

...but somehow, she couldn't get up. Not yet.

She crawled onto the blanket next to Terra and curled herself against his side. He blinked in surprise. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah..." Her words were suddenly gone, and she felt like she was fumbling at romance in the same way he did, though she didn't know if it was as endearing when she did it. "Just... you. Me. For a minute."

Terra nodded and pulled her head close to his chest. Aqua lay there for a few moments, breathing in the smells of what they'd just done, their sweat mingled together, his own unmistakeable personal scent underneath that. Wanted to take it in so deeply that she would know it anywhere, in any world, even in complete darkness.

Her own essential pragmatism resurfaced before long-- it was difficult for her to keep it down. She sat up, trailed fingers over his hair, and looked around. "My watch... need to find it. I don't know how much time that took..."

Climbing to her feet, she reached into the pile of clothes and fumbled it out. Terra looked suddenly shocked, as if all thoughts of time had completely fled his mind. "Damn! I forgot! We're not too late, are we?"

"No." Aqua shook her head, her sweaty, dishevelled blue hair falling down around her eyes. "It's okay. We made it... barely. A little over ten minutes to go."

"Okay. Then we'll have to get everything back on, fast." Suddenly the forest didn't seem quite so cosy and warming any more. Not that it could ever really be menacing; the shields of light around the world itself prevented that, but every distant sound of rustling or branches crunching could be Master Eraqus coming to look for them. Which they both knew could be its own kind of terrifying. "Oh, and Aqua?"

"Y-yeah?" She looked up at him, brushing sweat-damp hair away from her face.

"I think one of us should... buy a new watch. One with an alarm clock on it, or something."

"Um..." Aqua wasn't quite sure how to say this discreetly, but now that she was a bit more in control of herself, she had realized one important thing: there was no way she was putting those clothes back on without a quick dip in the lake. Not only was she sweaty and smelling like... things that had nothing to do with training, but judging from the messiness between her legs, Terra did have more self-control than she'd given him credit for. In the sense that, judging from the sheer amount of it, he'd probably been holding back not just from sex, but from pleasuring himself, too, for a little while.

Had he been saving his desire for her? It was one of those things he did that was more touching than it should have been. She wondered if a "normal" girl would have felt the same way, although, for all he teased her about being so girly sometimes, he also told her how glad he was that she wasn't a normal girl in other ways. Anyway, she needed a bath as soon as possible, and then she'd put her clothes back on.

Terra was still staring at her, waiting for her to finish her sentence. "Yeah?"

"I'm going to go take a really quick bath in the lake, okay? Just stay here and... watch these for me." Not that there was much of a chance of anyone stealing her clothes in the middle of the woods, but leaving them unattended felt... awkward.

The "lake" was really more of a large pond, and not too far from where they were. They had gone swimming there before, with the Master's blessing-- she and Terra at first, and later the two of them and Ven, though always in bathing suits. Somehow, slipping into it naked made Aqua feel like she was breaking some important rule, even more than... well, any of the ones they'd just blatantly broken. She glanced around, feeling more exposed underneath the bright sky and sunlight now, as she lowered herself into the water, refreshingly cool and washing the sweat from her skin.

It didn't take more than a few minutes to freshen herself up to her liking. Now that she was in the lake, though, she was suddenly beginning to think that swimming naked in it felt better than swimming with a bathing suit on, and wondering how in the world she'd keep a straight face when she came back here with Ven.

She combed back her wet hair-- if anyone asked, she would just say she'd poured some water over it to refresh herself after practice-- and walked back to the shore, heading back into the woods, wrapping her arms around herself at the suddenly cold afternoon breeze on her bare skin.

And then stopped dead in her tracks, for a split second, before ducking behind a bush with a little involuntary squeak. Holding her breath, she peeked out from between the leaves, trying to make sure she hadn't hallucinated what she thought she had just seen.

It was Ven, standing in the middle of the grove and talking to Terra, who was wearing nothing at all except for their blanket wrapped around his waist.

On the good side, he hadn't seen her naked. On the not-so-good side, Terra was now stuck trying to come up with a fumbling explanation for why he was wearing nothing but a dirty blanket. At least he'd moved himself into a position where he was trying to obscure Ven's view of Aqua's clothes.

"I just decided to come down and take a walk in the woods-- I couldn't find you guys, so I got bored." He shrugged, blinking at Terra owlishly. "But... what happened to your clothes?"

"It's... well, it's..." Aqua buried her face in her hands, hoping desperately for once that Ven actually was as naive as he gave the impression of being. "Well, you see, it's part of an ancient male ritual. On the world I came from, at least."

"Taking off your clothes and wearing a blanket is an ancient male ritual?" Ven looked him up and down, as though he was investigating for evidence of something magical. "Does it... do something special?"

"That... depends on who you ask." There was a kind of knowing satisfaction in Terra's voice, and Aqua suddenly found herself blushing. She swore to herself that if he'd said it because he knew she was listening in, she would find some way to stick him with all the chores for the rest of the week.

"Could you tell me more about it sometime?" She couldn't tell if Ven was humouring him or actually believing any of this.

"I'll..." He was fumbling around for words again, and Aqua silently hit her forehead with the flat of her palm. "Well, I'll... tell you when you get a little older, okay? It's a ritual for adult men only, so I'm not allowed to tell anyone who's too young."

Oh, great-- since when had telling Ven that he wasn't allowed to know something ever been a good way to stop him from trying to find out about it? He was definitely a normal kid in that regard, at least. Still, he seemed to be buying it. Maybe. If his lack of response was any indication.

"...Okay. Uh, Terra, are you done with the... ritual?" He glanced around the grove, and Aqua crouched down even lower in the bush, even though the twigs and sticks poking into her bare skin weren't exactly comfortable. "I'll leave you alone if you need to finish it."

From what she could see through a clump of leaves, Terra was turning around, bending over and gathering up their clothes, trying to (she hoped) hide her clothes underneath his own. "Almost finished. Um, would you mind... waiting here for a little while? I just need to go change out of the... ritual clothing."

"Okay. Sorry about that. Actually, I'll just head back to the training field. I didn't know you would be down here, so..." His voice trailed off suddenly.

Terra glanced behind his shoulder. "You okay?"

"How come there's one of Aqua's shoes here? Is that... part of the ritual too?" Ven was pointing at something off to the side-- something that Terra had apparently missed in his attempts to collect their clothing. She smacked her forehead again.

"That? Oh, uh! I just... borrowed it. I, um, needed it to balance out the magical energies." He stood up with the bundle of their clothing, minus the one shoe, and turned to leave, his back to Ven.

"Does she know it's missing? I thought she was supposed to be training now. I hope she doesn't get mad at you."

"No, no, that's from... her extra pair. It's okay."

"Well... okay." He glanced around again, and Aqua wasn't sure how much he suspected, but at least he hadn't seen her. "See you soon!"

For some reason, the only reaction she could have when he came down to the lakeside with her clothes, naked except for the blanket, was to start laughing so hard she had to cover her hand with her mouth, on the off chance Ven might still be able to hear it.

"Hey." He began sorting out her clothes and draping them over the branches of the bush she was crouched behind. "I couldn't think of anything else to tell him, in the moment!"

"'Ancient male ritual?'" She tried to stand up while doubling over with laughter. "I'm just glad it was my shoe you forgot to pick up and not my underwear."

"Well, it sort of is, isn't it? Getting in touch with nature, being at one with the elements..." He let the blanket drop from around his waist. "Kind of makes you feel... more alive, you know?"

"You should take a bath too!" She pointed to the lake. "You don't smell much like training, yourself. And that blanket is definitely getting washed."

"Hey! It is a kind of practice! Just... not exactly the kind we were scheduled to be doing."

"And I think our next practice should involve 'finding ways to keep Ven busy with something else.'" Aqua threw his pants at him. He grabbed them and headed down towards the lake.

"But you have to admit it worked." Terra ran his hand through his hair and added, "For now."

Well, that... she couldn't argue with that; he had a point. She finished putting on her clothes, combed out her hair again with her fingers, and began heading back to the compound. There was an idea floating around in her head that she ought to say something-- something sweet and romantic, given that she had enjoyed it after all-- but she also knew somehow that whatever she could say in words, he already knew from what she'd told him with her body.

\-----------

"So, um, Aqua..." Ven had a slightly abashed look on his face and was fumbling his fingers nervously.

"Is something wrong?" It could be any number of things, she reminded herself-- there was still so much that he didn't know, and she never minded telling him about things he really didn't know anything about. Well, with... a few exceptions, she admitted to herself.

"So, um." He fiddled with a zipper on his shirt uneasily. "Do you know the real reason Terra was in the woods today wearing just a blanket?" The look on Ven's face was an odd mixture of confusion and doubt as he added, "He's... kind of weird sometimes."

"Err..." Aqua was just glad it was after dark now, and maybe he wouldn't be able to see, in the lamplight, how hard she was blushing. "He's kind of weird, yes. I don't always understand him either. I guess he had some reason for doing it." That was true. Even if she had carefully left out a large part of the truth, she wasn't technically lying. "I don't think we'd want him to be any other way, though, right?"

"Yeah..." He seemed thoughtful, but let it go at that. "I'll try asking him again when I'm older, I guess."

She hadn't realized Terra had been anywhere nearby until she heard him whispering, breath hot in her ear, "I wouldn't want you any other way, either."


End file.
